Beloit College - Codex Yearbook (Beloit, WI)

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TIJE H1S7'0A'V OF BELOIT COLLEGE. 17 the framing of this good ship, whose ribs and hull are wrought of eternal truths that know no decay. The Chesapeake might well have been cut on the college-seal. The Four Conventions. As we have said, there had been already much thinking and talking of a college. It was discussed in 1843, in Beloit, in the old stone church on Broad Street, in the General Convention of the Congre- gational and Presbyterian churches. But from that crowded conference on the steamer sprang a dennite purpose, and definite plans. A con- ference was called, to meet on the 6th of August, 1844. Enthusiasm had been sufficient so far, now they were face-to-face with work. Small as Beloit then was, with less than a thousand inhabitants, it was a large part of VVisconsin, for the Territory had in 1840 little more than thirty thousand people. Money was scarce, transportation was by horse, or ox, or on foot, over roads that were often desperately bad. It took devo- tion to come even a little distance to talk of a college. In that first conference there were four from Iowa, twenty-seven from Illinois, twenty-ive from Wisconsin, fifty-six in all. Aratus Kent, afterward known as the father of Rockford Seminary, was called to preside. They spent two days in earnest talk. They planned for a college for Iowa-afterward established, as Iowa College, at Davenport and later moved to Grinnell-and a college and a female seminary for this border-region connecting the state of the prairies and the state of the lakes. Only so much did they dare to do. They therefore published their results, and called another convention for October, to review their action and advance upon it if that should seem best. So cautious did they think it necessary to be. The October convention was composed of fifty members, all from Wisconsin and Illinois. Still another convention, of sixty-eight mem- bers, was held before they dared to take any irrevocable steps, that came in May, 1845, and decided on Beloit as the site, In October, 1845, a fourth convention adopted a form of charter and elected a board of Trustees. So BELOIT COLLEGE became a name and a splendid hope. The ora stone church. These four conventions and the first meeting of the trustees were held in the basement of the old stone church. That church is too closely connected with the beginnings of Beloit College to be left with

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16 C ODEX. Northwest, performed the first great act in deciding what the future Beloit should be. The statesmanship and greatness of Dr. Cutler are coming into recognition at last. His statue should some day adorn the college-grounds. The Black-Hawk War. Turn the glass, and you bring up another scene. It is the summer of 1832. The Sacs and the Foxes, under Black Hawk, are at war with the United States. They are in full retreat from central Illinois up the valley of the Rock. Abraham Lincoln, a young Springfield lawyer, is captain of a militia company that shares in the pursuit. They pass through what is now Beloit, going to Fort Atkinson and beyond, and finally westward, till Black Hawk is taken and the war is closed. So the valley is cleared of Indians, and the white settler comes in. He has hardly arrived before he begins to think and talk of a college. u The Chesapeake. Turn the glass again, It is the summer of 1844. The steamer Chesapeake is plowing westward through Lake Erie. There has been at Cleveland a great gathering of Christian people from the region covered by the Ordinance of 1787 and its extensions, they came together to consider the general interests of the kingdom of Christ in the Mississippi valley, their session is over and many of them are journeying homeward together on this boat. Dr. Chapin's own account of it is this: You may see seven of us crowded together in that narrow room, STEPHEN PEET, to whom belongs the honor of being foremost and chief of the founders of Beloit College, is lying on the berth, ill in body, but his fertile mind as active as ever in planning for the spiritual interests of this region. By his side sits Theron Baldwin, then just entering on his life-work. Miter, Gaston, Hicks, Bulkley, and myself are standing by, listening to their talk. The VVestern College Society was fairly organized, and Baldwin, its secretary and soul, unfolds its purpose and plans. There is light and hope in what he says. A hand from the East will be stretched out to help on the establishment of genuine Christian colleges, judiciously located here and there in the West. Peet seizes on the gleam of encouragement, his uttered thoughts kindle enthusiasm and hope in the rest. There is an earnest consulta- tion--there is a fervent prayer--there is a settled purpose, and Beloit College is a living conception .... The steamer Chesapeake has long since gone to pieces, but of that conference mi her deck came

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18 CODEX. only casual mention. It had the curious fortune of being mentioned in two editions of the American Cyclopedia. It stood on the northwest corner of Broad and Prospect Streets, where the house of C. C. Keeler now stands, it faced south, and had four tall brick pillars in front, the historic basement, of whose connection with the early history of Beloit College we have yet one IHOIC thing to tell, was entered by a door on the east. Had that church not existed and had it not been the best in theiregion outside of Milwaukee, the college might have gone elsewhere for a home. The first settlers had very little money, and it took a bushel of wheat to get a letter out of the post-office or a yard of calico from the store. t 5 gg' it Bi s ft s W lr.r fl ' t tt 1 wliilatt' iran FQ -LQLE in it ' L Q i M ., gg ., l gilt .E 243.4 1.-. 211,-xfwS?::::2L::E'2:i,T . gripe-ff - - - e X. ,ps . H+,-1 adam.. X-' S,,zj,,,, j-.- A 'Eg Du Sm-xc, CIW'-Jr THE OLD STONE CHURCH. Pork was only two or three cents a pound. Yet those beginners were willing to work. They got stone and lime from their quarries 5 they sawed the native trees into lumber 3 brick was made in' the neighborhood. Only the shingles must be got from abroad, and for those one of them went without money to Kenosha, driving an ox-wagon, sleeping under it, and asking in Kenosha for a Christian lumberman who would let them have the shingles on credit and wait till spring for his pay. The' trip took a week, but the shingles were got, the .church was used through the winter, and the promise to pay was kept. In that basement the Beloit Seminary found a homeg as we seek to estimate the iniluences that brought the College to Beloit, we must give